Harriet Jacobs Anti-Slavery

Through the slave narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author and narrator, Harriet Jacobs recounts the summation of her life’s events, beginning from the moment of self realization as a slave, to the climax of freedom from persecution and fear associated with slavery. However, this literary piece serves a purpose greater than a refreshing form of entertainment of the American Antebellum period. Jacobs relives her traumatic experiences in this narrative to convey anti-slavery rhetoric through these true and horrifying experiences, Although the piece as a whole functions effectively to bring the audience to the realization of slavery’s true nature, Jacobs utilizes more provocative rhetoric through her interruptions of the narrative. In these interruptions delivers her anti-slavery rhetoric directly to the audience. This audience too is specialized, as they are northern White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (W.A.S.P.) women. With this defined audience, Jacobs specifies her argument and appeals to the female issues of slavery, namely sexual abuse, motherhood, and further oppression for her gender, then parallels said themes to the experiences and sentiment of the female audience.
In the progression of the narrative Jacobs she learns of her nature of existence as she states, “I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy
They look back on the decisions Jacobs has made to stay ahead of her predator Dr. Flint. She receives no unconditional love from any man, and consistently picks the lesser of two evils in her sexual encounters. But as she fends off theses sexual advances, Jacobs also questions her audience’s strength and psychological integrity if placed in such a position. By doing so Jacobs consistently reiterates her virtuous